Artist statement

"I recall that in my childhood, a raft of vibrant colours were epitomizing my dreams. As I was studying Visual Communication at the Faculty of Fine Art in Damascus University, a research in colours fascinated me; a research stating that our eyes are capable of identifying and distinguishing a variation of ten million levels of colours. At the time, I felt that a colour is definitely capable of voicing any reality we may try to deny. In Damascus, my colours became the luck of violence. So the harshness of my paintings acquired a bright colour which equivocated the scene by deception until I came, with the company of colours, to be drawing the ugly coloured face of war with no fear. My characters have had no clear features until now. They &re still trying to symbolize the Syrian scene, sometimes, through heavy armored vehicle or figures resting on "Dialog Tables" and stuffing their pockets and suitcases with what has remained of the memories of each displaced person, emigrant, or refugee."

Ala' Hamameh